SHORT STORY
INTELLIGENCE TEST
THE Chief of Police laughed,
THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 15, 1930 MERKADA
By N. Scarlyn Wilson
was
dormant sentries. guard it, despite the plots which are it eventually aroused his
Then he pointed at one of the two "Forgive me, senor," he said in being continually hatched against him, curiosity.
It was an unusual conversation be- and broke into a torrent of the vilest mock serious apology, "but your re- You ask me for work in my intelli- quest amuses me. I must either laugh gence department, giving your gift of cause it was carried on in three lan- abuse which he could summon to his or be angry. And I dislike getting tongues as a qualification. I tell you" guages, Two of the speakers-the dif- command-and his vocabulary
enough he rapped the desk before him-"I ferent voices were clearly distinguish- extensive. He brought his utterance a few well-chosen angry. The climate is hot
can find many men who speak three able-subsequently translating their to an end with
for epithets reflecting gravely on the sen- without that."
languages, but that does not mean they remarks into Spanish, evidently
up a handful of dirt from the road, and are necessarily intelligent and honest the benefit of the third member of the try's parentage, and ended by picking
party. as well,"
The young Englishman, in the suit of not over-clean white drill, wanted to make a warm rejoinder; but he checked the impulse-not because of the heat, but because he couldn't af- ford to show his annoyance.
ers.
he
Sanderson lost his temper at that. "Then you think I'm a spy or some- thing?" he said hotly.
"J
.
and
The sequel was Inevitable. The pair left their posts with one accord and bore down upon him. In a second they had hauled him, none too gently, inside the gate, and the three, their doubts as to his condition finally set at rest, lounged off,
uncon-
The outraged sentries also very de- finitely shared the view of his late pursuers. The sudden sobering of their prisoner left them entirely gent protests, they thrust him uncere- vinced and without listening to his ur- moniously into a filthy cell in the cala- boose. The action seemed to relieve their over-wrought feelings consider- ably.
But, whilst the polyglot character of flinging it at him. the conversation was surprising, the subject of it was even more so, and "I mean, senor," the official told him, Sanderson, who had begun by listen "I don't think so, Excellency,"
at ing idly, as to the talk of fellow-tra- said. He knew that the other was not "that I know nothing about you entitled to such a dignity as he had present. When I have more informa- vellers in a railway carriage, was soon given him, but politeness could do no tion I shall know what to do, one way straining his ears so as not to miss a harm. "After all," he went on, "why or the other. meanwhile, I regret word of what passed between the un-
I'm a infinitely..
seen customers in the interior of the shouldn't I be of use to you?
He broke off with an expressive ges- little wine-shop. good linguist."
yet, The voices sank lower The Spaniard shrugged his should- ture, and, outwardly calm but cursing
inwardly, the young Englishman Sanderson, with whom the police of "So are dozens of others, senor. walked out of the room and passed ficial's doubts of his capacity still ran- Waiters, for instance, in your Soho, to out of the main gate, before which kled, leaned closer to the shuttered which I used to go sometimes when I two slovenly sentries were posted, into window behind him. was an attache at our legation in Lon- the torrid mid-day heat.
It was 3 o'clock when he ventured don, where I learned English."
"You speak it very well, Excellency." out from his stifling room, pursued by The official waved aside the com- the suspicious glances of the landlord, a surly fellow, whose manner clearly pliment.
easily to indicated that he would show his guest "Languages come more some people than to others," he said. short shrift when his money gave out. "It is a matter of chance, like having And that, Sanderson reflected gloomi- a good memory. But the ability to ly, as he made his way along the evil chatter in several different tongues smelling street, would not be long un- does not necessarily imply that the less luck came his way for once.
The He hadn't had much lately. man who possesses it has more vital gifts."
He leaned forward across the desk, and his voice lost something of its half-bantering tone:
"Here, in Central America," he said, "we take our politics less phlegmatic- ally than you do in England."
Sanderson smiled faintly
as
he thought of the volleys of machine-gun
The movement was his undoing. His chair began to slide from under him, and to save himself from falling, he was forced to shoot his leg sharply out. A chair was pushed back, and Sander- son heard steps moving towards the open doorway.
To
There was no time to get away. run for it would be to admit that he had understood the talk intended for no other cars than those of the three
It was not until some hours later that Sanderson, dragged from his ver- minous place of confinement, was- brought once more before the Chief of official's. Police and, this time, the
manner was not friendly.
"So, senor," he began contemptuous- ly, "I might have known it. I had
crash had come at home, and he had inside, and he knew very well that he thought of arranging a little test of
me
your vaunted capacity, but I find, from this report, that you have saved the trouble. You get drunk, insult my sentries, and expect me, I suppose, to consider your conduct as á recom
mendation?”
would not get far before being dealt had to find something quickly or 50 with in a manner that would effectual- under, so he had jumped at the chance ly prevent him from passing on what offered him. And now it seemed that he had heard: a knife-thrust in the instead of going under in England, he back was a convenient method of en- would do so in Central America. Either suring secrecy in these parts. starve or become one of the poor de- He had to think quickly, and when
He spoke cuttingly, but the English- vils of beach-combers, or like the con; the foremost of the three-a particu- man showed no sign of being abashed. sul, whose will-power had been rotted larly tough-looking citizen-emerged On the contrary, he reddened with an- from the wine-shop with his compan- ions close behind, it was to find an "What the devil do you mean by obviously fuddled individual, swaying keeping me locked up in that foul slightly on his heels, and staring ow- hole?" he demanded furiously. "I've lishly at him.
been there for about five hours."
by the climate.
the
"Salud!" he muttered fatuously, and, raising the glass to his lips, he drain- an-ed it and set it down noisily on the
table..
fire which had echoed round the Plaza
And yet there were the makings of Mayor on the occasion of the elections
a country out here. If the new ad- the week before.
"This is a cosmopolitan city," the ministration survived, and re official continued, "like Marseilles or sources of the land were developed It is a rendezvous of properly, instead of being exploited Buenos Aires.
crooks plotters, concession-hunters, revolu- by foreign syndicates and
had tionaries, and scum of all kinds. You whom the new President will hear French, German, Italian, as nounced his intention of turning out- well as Spanish in the streets. Very and they'd had a long enough innings little English. Which is why I am in in these coast republics-something clined to be curious about you, my worth while would come of it.
But the President mightn't last long friend."
with an unscrupulous gang against Sanderson met his glance calmly.
overall him. Nor would he, for that matter, "I thought we had been that before, Excellency," he said po- if things didn't improve pretty quick litely. "I have referred you to the ly: which brought his thoughts-back British Consul here. He will support to their unpleasant point of departure. There were few people about. It was my story."
"Yes," replied the other gently, "but still too hot. "Mad dogs and English- who will support the Consul? You men," he murmured. But he couldn't know as well as I do that the worthy have endured the depressing atmos- Douglas has a regrettable liking for phere of his own room any longer, and, whisky capital beverage when following the main thoroughfare, he taken in moderation, but disastrous came out into the almost deserted when imbibed too freely. I find it Plaza de Independencia. difficult, on that account, to place much reliance on the testimony of the ex- cellent Douglas."
ger.
"I regret, senior, that you have been put to so much inconvenience," re- torted the Spaniard with offensive po- liteness. "But your excellent country. To the waiter, who had come out to man detained me for two hours on: see what had disturbed the others, some flimsy pretext. But for that I Sanderson handed a five-peso piece, should have taken steps for your re- and waved aside the change with a lease and for your expulsion from lordly air-a heroic gesture in view of the country-somewhat sooner. I as- the state of his finances and the price sure you, however," he added gently, of the beer, 40 centimos-but its very "that there will be no undue delay extravagance served, as he hoped it about that." would, to dispel something of the sus- picion which the three clearly enter- tained.
Sanderson ignored the thrust. "So the Consul wasn't drunk?" he- asked.
They made no effort to detain him,
"No, senor," was the caustic reply. but, when he lurched off in the direc- "But you very ably stepped into his tion by which he had come, they fol- shoes in that respect. Sangre de Dios,"" lowed at a discreet distance.
he went on furiously, swinging round, -Nor did they show any signs of de- as an officer burst into the room, "is sisting. Rather, they drew nearer, par- there no door to knock on? No res- The air shimmered with heat. One ticularly in those streets where there pect for orders here?" or two beggars were crouched in the were still few people about, and, with The offender saluted. shadow of the Cathedral porch. A growing dismay Sanderson, shambling
"Your pardon, senor coronel," Thinking of the wreck of a man dog, too apathetic to scratch itself, uncertainly along, thought of what said hurriedly. "I could not be quite · whom he had visited in the British panted distressfully under the lee of was likely to happen when he reached sure that all was well. But we have-
could not but a wall. The whole place seemed to the squalid, suspect quarter in which the assassins laid by the heels." -Consulate, Sanderson
his straltened circumstances had oblig- agree with the official's bland state- be asleep.
ed him to find a lodging.
1
ment..
There was no chance, apparently, of them sheering on, and to break into a run now would be madness.
he.
The chief of police stared at him in amazement.
"Explain yourself, man," he said: impatiently.
The officer smiled.
Somehow or other he had to allay "It appears that the English their suspicions, and, at length, when has not told you then?"
the steps behind him grew unpleasant- Told me?. What should he ly close, an'idea struck him. He turn- me?"
!
"
senor
..
telli
It was useless to walk any further "I am constrained, therefore, to use in that heat, especially as he had no- my own judgment, senor," the Spun- where definite to go. He looked about fard went on,. "though I go this after- for a wineshop, whose prices were noon to pay a second visit to the Con- likely to be in keeping with the lean- sul. So far, I know only that you ness of his purse, and saw a humble landed here from a banana boat a looking place in the corner, with a week or two ago, and that you hoped dingy awning protecting the chairs to engage in a commercial enterprise and tables standing outside it.
ed off to his right at the next turning, "Only that you owe him much, senor per- which has not materialised."
He headed for it, and sat down with trying to make his actions seem as colonel. If he had not — er — "That was not my fault, Excellen- a sigh of relief, ordering a glass of the aimless as possible, and at the far end suaded a prison sentry..
it cy," Sanderson protested. "How was thin beer of the country
was of the road he saw the gate through "'Persuaded' is good," Sanderson I to know that the man whose planta- cheaper than wine from a drowsy which he had passed that morning, broke in with a grin, "It cost me my tion I had come out here to manage waiter, who seemed to resent the pre- with two sentries on guard on either last 10 pesos to persuade the fellow would be shot, when your new Presid- sence of a customer at this time of the side.
to take a note round to the Consul, It was an awkward moment. His 'and another to the President's palace. ent seized power two days before I afternoon, when all sensible folk were arrived?"
still enjoying their slésta,
pursuers might jump to the conclusion You see," he went on, "I had to pre- unfortunate, certainly," Though he had his back to the wall, that he was going to see the Chief of tend to be drunk in order to get in agreed the other suavely. "But the in- an awning above his head, and a tub Police, and decide, at all costs, to pre- here without being laid out first by famous character of your prospective of dusty evergreens screening him vent his getting there. The thought the plotters, whose little scheme I had employer is no great recommendation from view on one side, Sanderson still sent a cold shiver down his back.des- overheard and, by the way, they for you in my eyes. Don Ramon found the heat almost overpowering. pite the heat, but he zigzagged along were talking. Russian and German as Sebastian Guevara" the scading He had meant to sip his drink and the road, trying to give the impression well as Spanish. It was. only when I syllables rolled Impressively off his think things out, but he found coher that he had no purpose at all in View: got, inside, and had been duly locked tongues a great man.. You have ent thought impossible and fell into a His pursuers were plainly uncertain, up for my palas, that F remembered heard much of gråft, corruption, and kind of stupor, his eyes wide open but but they drew nearer yet. By the that you had gone to the Consul, so I Inefficiency in this part of the world, unseeing, his faculties torpid.
time he reached the gate they were sent word to him to keep you there at no doubt? All that was true. But it - It was some time before he heard no more than two or three paces dis- all costs, and the devil's own Job I will stop it"-he stressed the word the murmur of voices, and still longer tant, and he heard a sharp intake of had to convince the prison sentry that "If the life of the new President
sound. But something peculiar about stared Insolently at the perspiring
**It
was
.
spared. And it is my business to sar before he paid any, attention to the breath behind him as he halted and I wasn't crazy, or even drunker than
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